Just curious if anyone can confirm this?

 

Thanks!

Not sure what the infamous 8 to 10 min freeze is exactly, I've never had this happen.

 

When exactly does it happen? At the Startup, during flights shut down?

You mean the "sound freeze," where the screen and mouse would lock up and the sound would continue?  Have never had it in SE.  Actually, I finally cured it in FSX Boxed by throwing higher-capacity video cards at it.  My version of the problem was usually caused by insufficient video memory and/or processing power.

 

If you have something else in mind, then I'm not sure.  But FWIW, I haven't had lockups in FSX:SE of any kind.

Ya, I guess you can call it the "sound" freeze as well.  The sim would lock-up but the sound would continue.  Eventually it would all unlock and continue around the 8 minute mark.  I use to get them with MS FSX but have found the right combination of tweaks that they do not appear anymore.  I have a buddy who is getting them regularly and I thought maybe trying FSX-SE, short of going to P3D, would alleviate that issue.  That would be my backup plan as well.

 

Quote from HiFi on the infamous "8min freeze":

 

 

Also known as the "8-minute freeze", this can occur intermittently during a longer flight. When the freeze occurs, all motion on the simulator stops. Sound may be observed still playing, but the FS program stops responding. Approximately 8 minutes later, the simulator "comes back" and operates normally.

With much research and testing, HiFi has determined that this freeze is related to the threading, affinity and the collision and deadlocking of terrain load fiber processes within FSX. It is almost unanimously related to use of Hyper-Threading, and can affect any FSX installation, including default/stock installations without any add-ons. Use of weather add-ons increase the likelihood of this freeze.

Since this issue can be made worse when using Active Sky 2016, although it is an FSX problem not directly related to our product, we provide potential solutions below to help anyone experiencing these freezes:

1) Use an appropriate AFFINITYMASK setting within your FSX.cfg configuration file. This setting specifies which cores are used for FSX. Using too many cores, or improper cores can cause freezes. If you are using 6 or more cores, it is important to limit the cores used, as too many cores causes synchronization problems and more potential freezes. We recommend using 3 cores maximum, regardless of HT enabled or not.

2) AS16 will warn and optionally apply an appropriate AFFINITYMASK setting if it is not already configured. The setting used will be based on using up to 3 physical cores, but depends on your CPU and number of cores, and if HT is enabled or not.

3) Other potential fixes for the freeze: Use the UIAUTOMATIONCORE.DLL fix. Disable SLI if activated. On Windows 8, you may need to run FSX with Windows 7 compatibility mode.

I use to have these freezes every now and then when using FSX.  When I switched to FSX-SE, which has been about a year now, I have had no sound/mouse freezes. Well pleased with FSX-SE.

Weird. Can't say I ever ran into or heard of this.

 

Then again, I don't think I'd have the patience to wait 8 minutes for the issue to correct itself, so I'd probably have reset FSX before then.

Weird. Can't say I ever ran into or heard of this.

 

Then again, I don't think I'd have the patience to wait 8 minutes for the issue to correct itself, so I'd probably have reset FSX before then.

 

 

Ha ha... So true. CTRL+ALT+DEL! 

 

 

Quote from HiFi on the infamous "8min freeze":

 

Interesting description.  Doesn't quite match what I experienced - the immediate cause was usually too many mouse clicks in too rapid succession.  And the problem tended to go away when I upgraded to higher-performing video cards.  Just another indication that there's a lot of stuff going on... and going wrong... under the hood.

 

Another difference, for me, was that FSX never resumed, even after a much longer period of time (an hour or more).  So yes, CTRL+ALT+DEL was the only possible response.

I've been frequently experiencing this freeze on Windows 7 after upgrading to Windows 10, then having to revert to Win7 and reinstall FSX (to include all the upgrades). I had already done the UIAUTOMATIONCORE.DLL fix with no change seen. Thanks for the head up in checking AFFINITYMASK for something else to try.

I think I do get these freezes as described and I do use FSX:SE. I used to get them all the time on "Boxed" but it's VERY rare now on SE. Note that I use a Pentium PC and an NVidia GT730 card so I'm pushing it anyway. If you've got good hardware then I'd imagine all would be well.

 

Never lagged for 8 minutes though - 3 at most.

Rupert

Been suffering these freezes the last few months and have tried published ideas, like the Avsim crash guide, and was about to give up. I recently noticed that i had some failed Windows 7 updates and seemed the update system was broken because updates were failing to download and install. I researched how to get that back up and running and got caught up on my updates and FSX  went back to being freeze free. Just something that might have been unique to me!

 

Of course now i took the plunge and got FSX-SE on the recent sale and like it even better.

Weird. Can't say I ever ran into or heard of this.

 

Then again, I don't think I'd have the patience to wait 8 minutes for the issue to correct itself, so I'd probably have reset FSX before then.

Yes I agree I never waiting 8 to 10 minutes maybe 2 minutes at the most then did the ctrl+alt+delete. Never could figure out the problem, the FSX-SE came to my rescue.

Any pointers from your research on getting Windows 7 updates back up and running?

Hi,

I got mine back up and running with--

KB3020369-X64

KB3172605-x64

WindowsUpdateDiagnostic troubleshooting pack

 

Installed in the above order. You may need to go into services and disable windows update to get them to install.

 

Good luck

 

Mukiwa

Thanks mukiwa, I'll explore that road next. None of the other recommendations have fixed the problem yet.